Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jason Zucker has struggled with injuries all season long, as the 30-year-old was limited to just 41 games during the regular season. Despite that, it looks like Zucker will be healthy enough to slot into the Penguins’ lineup for Game 2 tonight against the New York Rangers, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Mike DeFabo. Zucker could replace Rickard Rakell in the lineup, who was injured in Game 1’s triple-overtime win.
Game 2 will be a tougher outing for the Penguins, as NHL journeyman Louis Domingue, third on the team’s goalie depth chart, looks to start his first career playoff game. Zucker last played on April 26 before leaving that game with a lower-body injury. If Zucker can’t play, it’s likely youngster Drew O’Connor will make his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut.
- While the Boston Bruins struggle in the First Round against the Carolina Hurricanes, a former coach is getting put in the spotlight today. Longtime NHLer Jay Pandolfo was named as the 13th head coach of the Boston University Terriers today, just one season after he departed the Bruins organization as an assistant coach. Pandolfo was a member of Boston’s coaching staff from 2014-2021, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. Now, after one season as the associate head coach at BU, he’ll get the chance to lead the team himself. In Pandolfo’s final season as a player at BU, 1995-96, he torched the college circuit as the team’s captain with 38 goals and 67 points in just 39 games.
- New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald today left the door open on trading the team’s 2022 first-round draft choice, specifically to upgrade the team’s goaltending situation. The Devils were a much better team than their record indicated this season, largely because of injuries in the crease to both Mackenzie Blackwood and Jonathan Bernier. With Bernier’s playing future uncertain and Blackwood not emerging as a true no. 1 goalie just yet, the team will look to add an established body to the crease to help propel them toward a playoff spot. A weak free-agent market leaves the Devils with few choices there, so a trade is the most likely option for the Devils to be able to upgrade.
has Blackwood really fallen off that much that they should really br considering dealing a high 1st for a goalie?
@DarkSide830 – Did you see the NJD page, in the Goalies section? They used seven this year, which says injuries, and more injuries (or just bad play from the others). Blackwood’s numbers are not confidence inspiring, and about the best thing you can say is that his PIM totals are still 0. Just his age suggests he was possibly pushed into service before he was ready. You know how it goes, though, if everybody above you on the depth chart keeps getting injured, you get to bubble up to the top, whether you’re ready or not.
Short Answer Yes
Devils sign Fleury or Trade for Lehner
Kinda funny! Thanks for that.
I would take Blackwood on my team as a pairing. So long as I had a 2nd goalie to share time in net with him I had confidence in. And I believed he could survive some time without a bona-fide backup.